Revisiting Liberal Penality and the Human Rights Script
Ce workshop aura lieu les 29 et 30 janvier 2026 (Paris).
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Direction scientifique
- François Bonnet, directeur de recherche CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes (PACTE),
- Gaëtan Cliquennois, directeur de recherche CNRS, Université de Rennes (IODE),
- Kjersti Lohne, professeur, Université d'Oslo,
- Johanna Nickels, doctorante en droit pénal et criminologie, Freie Universität de Berlin.
Theme of the workshop
Political liberalism and the human rights paradigm, with their emphasis on the protection of individuals against excessive state punishment through human rights guarantees, have profoundly shaped punishment in the postwar Global North and beyond. Previous research has examined how NGOs, governments and international organizations mobilize the liberal human rights script when penal policies are proposed or implemented. A strong adherence to human rights, enforced by domestic and international courts, has often been viewed as moderating overly punitive penal policies. The liberal human rights script has also guided punishment and society accounts in their critique of discrimination, police violence or inhumane conditions of detention.
However, recent developments and research deeply trouble the scripts of liberal penality and human rights. First, influential human rights discourses view the expansion of the penal apparatus as a condition for the enforcement of human rights—showcasing the human rights script not only as a barrier and moderator but also as a driver of punitiveness. Often driven by influential (trans-)national liberal social movements and NGOs, these developments have resulted in multiple criminalizations in the name of victims’ and minorities’ rights, raising new questions about the nature of liberal penality. Second, decolonial critiques of liberal penal policy-making and new calls for abolitionism challenge the traditional liberal worldview by pointing to the entanglements of liberalism with colonialism and racism. Third, increasing autocratization in politics and the rise of “illiberalism” have inspired significant backlash to human rights-driven policy designs, preferring reliance on harsh penal policies. These diverging challenges to the human rights script call for more research on, for example, the rising influence exerted by authoritarian governments and transnational conservative NGOs. The paradigm of liberal penality as a dominant research lens and political ideology is thus not only increasingly fragmented but also faced with developments that thwart its very existence.
The planned special issue revisits liberal penality in light of these dynamics of change. It strives for a conversation of diverse research perspectives and innovative research on liberal penality, with a special interest in contributions that pay attention to under-researched perspectives on human rights, and/or research on African, Asian, Latin American and Eastern European (including Russia) contexts.
Télécharger le programme
Pour plus d'information : https://linktr.ee/workshopParis202501
